• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, April 7, 2015

In an RTB Insider post in late 2014, Turn’s SVP of Business and Corporate Development Maureen Little predicted that in 2015, custom programmatic technologies would be applied to new verticals, including CPG, B2B and financial services, to name a few.

And while programmatic was being used in all of those verticals prior to 2015, at least one part of Little’s prediction is coming true: B2B marketers are now getting custom programmatic technologies.

DWA, a media and marketing agency for tech companies, on Tuesday announced it has tapped DataXu, a demand-side platform (DSP), to build a new platform for B2B-focused programmatic advertising -- just as Little predicted.

“Most ad technologies are tailored for B2C, reaching a demographic instead of individual account teams,” said Matthew Yorke, president of global business innovation and CMO at DWA.

“Unlike B2C marketing, the impact of leveraging big data has not been realized fully in the B2B world,” echoed Mike Baker, DataXu CEO, in a prepared statement.

The companies purport that the custom-built platform can target specific offices or IP addresses, meaning that a range of people will be reached. The companies say that over one-third of B2B purchase decisions involve 6-10 people.

“There’s no new technology, per se, but the way it’s packaged and presented to the advertiser is definitely new,” remarked Yorke.

As previously noted, B2B-specific programmatic ad technology already exists. But those already in the space felt it needed more attention.

MultiView, for example, is a DSP focused on servicing B2B advertisers and its SVP of Marketing Ben Maitland, SVP of marketing, said to Real-Time Daily last year that he thought the B2B market needed more specialization.

“The B2B marketing landscape is much more fragmented than consumer marketing,” Maitland said at the time. “You don’t see the same agency participation, nor do you engage the large in-house ad buying operations. Bringing programmatic technology to these specialized B2B advertisers is something the market needs.”